RVers Guide to Perfect French Press Coffee

When I’m on a mission to find a solution, I’ll literally drive myself to craziness. And that’s exactly what I’ve been doing for the past TWO YEARS! I’m talking about making French Press coffee in our RV while boondocking without sacrificing robust flavor for lots of water water to clean it.

As I described in the blog above, it all started when we were at Quartzite two years ago. We were spoiled with our big beautiful Keurig. That wasn’t going to work because we needed to fire up our generator which oftentimes, would be in the wee hours of the morning. That is a huge no-no when boondocking. However, our friends whom we were dry camping with told us about French Press Coffee.

French Press Coffee??

Now, I never used a French Press let alone dared to pour boiling hot water into a glass one. Admittedly, I didn’t even know how they worked. So, I got the five-cent lesson from Tim. As he put it; “a couple spoonfuls of coffee in, pour in boiling water, let it sit for a few, stir and press”. Okay, tried it and….

…and WOW! Baby angels were just a singing! We’d never had coffee that tasted so good! It was rich, full-bodied and full of flavor. We enjoyed every last drop! It was like a Maxwell House commercial or something like that. However, that was short lived as we slurped down the last drops. Something wasn’t quite right….the cleaning part. Cleaning out the coffee grounds out of the French Press became a hassle; especially when boondocking when water isn’t so plentiful.

First, those who own RVs know (or should know) you’re never to dump coffee grounds down the drain…EVER! Let’s just leave it at that. So, I decided the next best thing would be to rinse it outside but that ended up using a lot of water which we need to conserve. My last ditch effort was I tried to scoop out the used wet grounds with a rubber spatula. And, that didn’t work out so well.

What’s a girl ta do?? I diligently set out on a quest to figure this damn thing out because I wanted good French Press coffee but I didn’t want to waste water to clean it out.

We used those French Press filters for about two years however the coffee didn’t seem to taste the same as when we made it in Quartzsite. It tasted ‘filtered’; meaning it filtered out all the good flavor. We made due but it still just wasn’t the coffee flavor we were yearning for. Adding to that, they were quite pricey (over $20some for 50 – YIKES!!!) for silly paper filters. And, through time, we grew much disdain to them as it was a crap-shoot keeping the grounds from coming out during the pressing process; not to mention burning my fingers when folding the filter bag down.

I had to find a better way…

Eager to try anything, I ordered them after reading the description and reviews. Their description reads…

We crafted these bags specifically for the daily brewer. Like you, we care about our beans, our grind, and our coffee. We spend our Saturday mornings with a quality brew, a page-turning book, and a trip to the park. Cleaning our presses seemed to get in the way of our favored activities, so we designed French Press Coffee Brewing Bags to make the process easier and faster.

Four mornings later, I tested them.

Okay, so we’re not Baristas. We don’t have scales, timers or thermometers, so all of that isn’t going to work for us. We just like a good Cup-a-Joe in the morning to kickstart our day. So, in old layman’s terms, we put a few scoops of our favorite blend in one of the Brewing Bags and tie it off at the top. Holding the Brewing Bag by the string, we pour boiling water over it into our French Press. We allow the Brewing Bag to sit and steep a couple minutes, press and voila! COFFEEEEEEEEE!!

We pour it into our BetterForYou Stainless Steel double-wall mugs and oh my word! Remember those baby angels that sang to me two years prior? Well, they come back to visit every time we make coffee this way now! We’re in heaven! This coffee tastes wicked awesome! Soooooooo….

AND, cleanup is easy peasy! Just finish off all our coffee (because wasting it would be a sin!), dump the Brewing Bag in the trash, wash or rinse the French Press out and be done with it.

More about the Brewing Bags…

The bags are made from a food grade polymer. While paper is commonly used in other brewing methods, it does absorb the oils and acids of the coffee that are extracted during the brewing process resulting in different flavor profile of coffee. (I think I mentioned that above with the other filters). We chose a material that will allow the oils and acids to pass through into the finished cup of coffee to maintain the integrity and taste that the French Press Coffee brewing method provides. Now, the downside (and I’m being honest here), they aren’t as biodegradable as the paper ones but hey, we have to make sacrifices for a good cup of morning gold, right? But, the company stated that they are working on that.

Oh and by the way, if you notice in the photo above, we now have a Sterling Pro double-walled stainless steel French Press because this is RV life. And well, that glass one fell out of the cabinet when I opened it after transit. It broke into smithereens! This French Press would make a fabulous holiday or birthday gift for your favorite coffee and RV peeps! (Because it won’t break!). Because of its material, it keeps our coffee hot longer.

YOU NEED THEM!! You will LOVE them!! Get a bunch!! Christmas is coming!! They make great gifts!!! Your parents, boyfriend, wife, favorite hiker, scary biker, teacher, preacher and well, you get the picture. YOU (and they!) will absolutely love them. Coffee stays hot longer like the French Press and oh yeah, they won’t break either!! So hey! Get them to make a set!

So, problem solved! If you’re planning on camping, boondocking, or boating out there and want good tasting coffee without sacrificing flavor for water conservation, I’ve done the painstaking work for you.

OH! And not only did we find a solution to the perfect French Press coffee while boondocking but also, I did your holiday shopping for you! YOU’RE WELCOME!

$10 OFF Your First Sticker Order!!!

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